Sheriffs vs drug smugglers on the Arizona / Mexico border

Pima County AZ Sheriff's Deputy Vincent Lopez stands over piles of burlap and potato sacks discarded in the Avra Valley desert. The bags once held bundles of marijuana that were walked across the border from Mexico. (Patrick McNamara/ The Explorer)

The new Arizona immigration law is unfair, biased, and targets the wrong people. That immigrant standing on a street hoping for a job isn’t the problem, but he’s being targeted anyway. But the drug smugglers at the border won’t be affected at all by the law, it’s almost irrelevant to them. And the problem is very real, with fifty pounds loads of marijuana being backpacked across the border.

“They have scouts on every hilltop,” Palmer said. “Every time we’re out there, we’re being watched.”

One thought on “Sheriffs vs drug smugglers on the Arizona / Mexico border”

US consumption of marijuana is estimated to be as high as 48 million pounds per year, of which 22 million pounds are produced domestically. That 25,000 pounds they busted in AZ isn’t even a drop in the bucket.